Our Story
Lisa and Andrew's Journey
Lisa and Andrew sold their café in Mevagissey and took the trip of a lifetime to New Zealand. Little did they know the holiday would change their lives. Inspired to create their own brand of peanut butter, Lisa threw herself into the project, even selling her beloved Mini to finance the creation of the brand. They worked with Darren and Kelly at Design by Friends who came up with some incredible ideas for the brand. Initially the business name was a sticking point “the Cornish Nut House” and “Kernut” were the front runners until Andrew came up with Freda’s after the camper van that they had toured NZ in. In the meantime, Lisa was busy creating tasty flavoured peanut butter recipes using fabulous ingredients, but blowing up food processors as they weren’t up to the job! She invested £600 in the first small but high powered machine. This is still used to this day when working on new flavors.
First Tasting Day
Lisa was working at Lobbs Farm Shop next door to the Lost Gardens of Heligan and they very kindly agreed to let her have a tasting day at the shop. She launched with 7 flavours, most of which are still in production today. Her friends Gill and Debbie went along to help and for moral support. They sold about 100 jars and this confirmed that the idea might actually work!
Expanding Operations
Things went very well in 2017 so in 2018 Lisa was able to replace her old banger with a new white Mini which got covered in Freda’s icons and became a new team member! Andrew scaled back his plastering business and started to work with Lisa more and more. They were on the road at food festivals a lot of the time spreading the word and one of the highlights was picking up a Gold Medal at the Devon County Show. At an open day at the Duchy of Cornwall college at Stoke Climsland they met Glen Coulson who was in charge of Food technology and introduced them to the idea of renting kitchen space there on a daily basis. This was a great move and allowed them to scale up a little. A semi automatic depositing machine at the college speeded up the process no end. Labelling was still done at home but a team of friends were recruited especially in the lead up to the Christmas markets. This led to Freda’s first Christmas works do! Freda’s bought the first van! They attended Bath Christmas market for the first time and it was so successful that in the 9 days they spent there Andrew dashed back to Cornwall twice to make more stock. Joined Instagram.
Great Taste Awards
A very busy year on the road and Andrew was now working for Freda’s full time. They managed to squeeze a jar of Freda’s Toasted Coconut as a late entry to the Great Taste Awards and were bowled over when it achieved a 2 star award. They also launched a new flavour Chocolate and Orange. They took on an extra Christmas market at Gloucester where Andrew was horrified as they had to dress up in Victorian costume!
Challenges and Growth
Achieved 1000 followers on Instagram. Purchased a new depositing machine affectionately known as “Phil”. Moved house to St Neot to be nearer the college where they were now working full time. Then Covid hit. Without an online shop Freda’s struggled as most farm shops and delis closed while the government tried to figure out safe ways for them to still trade. A really anxious time followed when Andrew went back to plastering work for some income as without a permanent contract at the Duchy Freda’s didn’t qualify for any support at all. Thankfully Ryan Macfarlane who had started work on Freda’s website pushed the job along rapidly and the online shop was launched. This was an absolute lifeline and thanks to the Freda’s loyal customers that kept things afloat for the rest of the year. They built an office in the garden and spent a lot of time decorating, cooking and shouting at elderly parents for going to the shops wearing masks under their noses. In Autumn they launched a new flavour Winter fruit and spice. Achieved 2k followers on Instagram. Donated 400 jars to the Trussells trust.
Taste of the West Awards
By 2021 all Freda’s flavours had achieved Gold awards at the Taste of the West and Freda’s best selling Cornish Sea Salt flavour was a Champion finalist. Reached 3k followers on Instagram. Bravely they went ahead and invested in a much larger food processor and moved into the huge kitchen at the Duchy college. Freda’s was featured in The Times and the Guardian. Yvey came on board as Freda’s Assistant Manager and began to whip the admin into shape. She took charge of all the admin processes and packed Freda’s online orders from home. Sean arrived around the same time to help in the kitchen and to hopefully help at food festivals if and when they returned. Lisa and Yvey attended the first trade show at the Source. Food festivals started to return and they attended Cheltenham in the July of that year. It was joyful to be back out meeting people again. Freda’s was featured on TV for the first time on Big Cook Little Cook in an episode called Incy Wincy Spider where they made energy balls from peanut butter shaped as spiders. Freda’s Black Pepper and Sea Salt flavour was launched. In November they attended Chatsworth Christmas market for the first time and discovered the joys of a heated gilet to protect from the freezing Derbyshire weather. Reached 4k followers on Instagram.
Help for Ukraine
Early in the year Freda’s donated 200 jars to Help For Ukraine. As the little van had struggled with capacity they bought a new larger white van which was promptly covered in Freda’s icons. Reached 5k followers on Instagram. In the summer they attended Rock Oyster festival where they served Freda’s on toast 4 ways, which was a roaring success. Freda’s was accepted into Gloucester services. The first ever pallet of Freda’s went abroad to Kuwait.
New Flavour Launch
Started working with Sam Hadadi, an influencer who created some amazing recipes using Freda’s throughout the year. Elliott White a Cornish based photographer continued to take some amazing photos of Freda’s products and recipes. The Black Pepper and Cornish Sea salt flavour won a Gold award at Taste of the West, and was featured with Lisa in a beautiful book of award winners from that year photographed by Guy Harrop. After some very hard work Freda’s achieved SALSA status. They attended the Farm Shop and Deli Show at the NEC for the first time and met some great new customers. They moved packing and distribution to a new office and unit in Bodmin. They joined the Slow Food movement. They were featured twice in the Guardian in articles written by Grace Dent. They met her at a book launch in Bath where she told them that she gave jars of Freda’s along with other goodies to all her guests who featured in her podcast. It was a real buzz to think that maybe the likes of Stephen Fry and James Norton were having Freda’s on their morning toast! Reached 6k followers on Instagram. Launched the new Rich Chocolate and Vanilla flavour to replace the Chocolate and Orange. Featured on James Martin’s Saturday kitchen which had an unbelievable response… all overwhelmingly positive. Later in the year Sarah came on board to help in the kitchen.